Barclays Cuts AES (NYSE:AES) Price Target to $17.00

AES (NYSE:AES) had its price target trimmed by Barclays from $23.00 to $17.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on AES. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America began coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their price target on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.30.

AES Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.35 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES has a 1 year low of $12.53 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.01.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that AES will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.27%. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES’s payout ratio is 47.92%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AES

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in AES in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 102.3% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in AES in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

About AES

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market.